Bluetooth 3.0 specs revealed, goes up to 11 thanks to 802.11

It's been known for a while now that the specs for Bluetooth 3.0 will be officially announced on 21st of April and they arrived on schedule. The specification are now known as Bluetooth 3.0 High Speed and for good reason - it promises up to 8 times the speed of version 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced data rate) for a theoretical maximum of 24Mbps.

The increase in speed is achieved thanks to the 802.11 radio protocol. Note that 802.11 is not Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi is just an implementation of the 802.11 standard. Despite this, the new Bluetooth version aims to help Bluetooth do a lot of the things that Wi-Fi was better at.

For starters, the obvious use is to download a huge media library between a phone and a computer. And with the increase in capacity of memory cards transferring sizeable music collections is common, but quite slow over Bluetooth.

Another use that the Bluetooth SIG has in mind for the 3.0 is to stream video files to a computer or TV from a phone (or Bluetooth-enabled camera). This is much like DLNA, which can stream audio and video over Wi-Fi.

You might be wondering what's the use of this new standard when Wi-Fi does most of those things already. The big advantage that Bluetooth has is the simplified way of connecting two devices. So, while Wi-Fi is still the way to go for more permanent networks, quickly connecting to a computer to transfer some files is more in Bluetooth's territory.

The new standard is backwards compatible and falls back to the regular Bluetooth if one of the devices doesn't support 802.11. Version 3.0 builds on previous versions so things like Secure Simple Pairing and the rest are still supported.

Bluetooth 3.0 also places a lot of emphasis on power control. To conserve the battery, the more power-hungry 802.11 radio is used only when specifically needed. Power is also carefully regulated so that the connection to a wireless headset won't be dropped even if you put the phone in your coat pocket, for example.

Devices that support Bluetooth 3.0 should start emerging in 9 to 12 months, so when you're buying a phone next year this is definitely a part of the specs to keep an eye on.